The first test flights will take place next year.
Last Friday, NASA announced the first crew to fly into space, since their space shuttle project officially stopped in 2011. The team of veteran astronauts who just made their public debut will be a joy. NASA’s hopes for a new era of space travel.
This crew of astronauts will not go to space by a ship developed by NASA, but will be a ship from a cooperation project between SpaceX and Boeing. These two leading companies are working together on a project to provide a service that can simply be called a passenger taxi to the International Space Station ISS.
During the ceremony at Johnson Space Center, NASA director Jim Bridenstine stood on stage to introduce each new member of the crew. The astronauts are divided into two groups: one will work for SpaceX and the other will work for Boeing.
During the first test flight of Boeing’s Starliner, NASA selected astronauts Eric Boe and Nicole Mann to fly with Boeing expert Chris Ferguson. Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will conduct a test flight of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.
On the first trip to the ISS, two astronauts Sunita Williams and Josh Cassada will fly for Boeing; Crew consisting of Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins will fly with the Dragon.
“It’s truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” says astronaut Mann, who officially entered the industry in 2013.
” Spaceship travel will be something you’ve always dreamed of as a test pilot,” said astronaut Hurley, who was on the last space shuttle.
From top to bottom, left to right: Sunita Williams, Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley and Eric Boe.
In an interview, NASA director Jim Bridenstine compared the newly-selected crew of astronauts to Team Mercury 7 – the seven astronauts who flew test flights at the dawn of the Space Age, their achievements built. into the movie The Right Stuff.
“Team Mercury 7 and the teams we just announced share the same spirit. After all these years, that spirit has not disappeared.”
In 2014, Boeing and SpaceX successfully signed a contract of $ 6.8 billion, the purpose of developing for NASA a system of ships that can carry people to the ISS station. Since then, the two companies have been vying to see who can achieve the feat first, a confrontation that could be called the space race of the new century. At the launch event, the two teams had two completely different uniforms: Boeing was blue, and SpaceX was black and white.
Director Bridenstine declared that this was a historic moment for NASA: “We are sending American astronauts into the air right on American soil.”
As for Boeing and SpaceX, they both seem to be slow in this race: both were scheduled to fly later this year, but have been pushed back to 2019.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told the NASA astronaut team entrusted to him: “It’s truly an honor to be a part of this space program and to send people into space. Thank you very much. We take this program very seriously. We won’t let anyone down.”
SpaceX says it will send crews of astronauts into space in April next year. Boeing said it will not be able to proceed with the project until the middle of next year. The NASA director believes in this schedule, excitedly saying , “We’re very close to that date. Yes, I’m very confident in the project.”
Just last week, Boeing confirmed that the emergency flight cancellation system was malfunctioning, with some valves not closing properly, causing liquid to leak out. Boeing has fixed the problem and is rushing to fix it.
SpaceX did not give a reason for the delay in the test flight deadline. But information from many reliable sources said that they were dealing with problems that could cause their powerful missile system to explode.
Americans are looking forward to the success of this project: since the space shuttle missions stopped 7 years ago, American astronauts have had to go into the air on a Russian rocket, launched in Kazakhstan.